I want to ask a big favor..

[rock]

Didn't know you could block adds. Seems the adds are always trying to sell what I have been trying to buy anyway. These browsers sure do follow you activities.

Rock

[rkmirage]

They don't bother me.

[silverbullet02]

Team member is $25 a year..50 some cents a month!

Actually that's about $2.08/month.

[Robby321]

Actually that's about $2.08/month.

My mistake...meant 50 cents a WEEK!

[Bodhi]

Whatever keeps this site up and runnin, happy to help. Cuz this site has helped keep me up and runnin!

[pcrussell50]

I do have an ad blocker, but I'm happy to whitelist S'n'F. Since I joined in 2009, (I first became a boater in 2008), I've never seen irritating or intrusive ads.

So I'm off to my ad blocker to play with the settings and see if I can figure out how to whitelist S'n'F.

Thanks for the great site.

On edit: Added to whitelist. This is the first site I've ever whitelisted, by the way.

-Peter

[Robby321]

Also no such thing as "free", as it came from the work of others at one time...

[Hayabusajm]

I'm usually on Scream & Fly with my iPad & the adds never interfere with my reading, on several occasions I've opened the adds to look for things that interest me. My pop up & cookie blocker is off for Scream and Fly. Great site & awesome group to be a part of.

[NICE PAIR]

Hi All,

I've always said, since the very first days that we've been online that all of my decisions here are guided by your input. This time, I have a favor to ask of all of you.

I've noticed that Scream And Fly's traffic has been increasing markedly over the last 12 months. Our traffic stabilized over the last two years, but this year we have been registering a lot of new members every day, and overall site traffic has increased substantially. I am so grateful for that. That increase in traffic required us to move into a far more powerful server, and even though our previous server was a dedicated machine, it could no longer keep up with the site's traffic. The new server is also dedicated, and will support upgrades to this site for many years moving forward.

And now for my favor:

I know that website ad-blockers are used by some people, and I can understand why. On some sites, ads can get invasive and inappropriate. However, on Scream And Fly, I watch the ads being presented here, and if any of them are in any way invasive or deceptive, I have them removed. Even though we lose much-needed revenue from black-listing ads, nothing is more important to me than the quality of the experience here for all of you.

If it's not too much to ask, would I be able to ask that maybe some of you using ad-blockers could think about white-listing the Scream And Fly site? Just to simply display the ads, not click on them (if you do not want to). I know this is an odd request, and I assure you none of the banner ads here present any invasive issue. The Scream And Fly site absolutely depends on this revenue, and as has always been the case, 100% of all revenue from Team Members, Supporting Vendors, and our Google and Outside Hub banners is used strictly to maintain and update the Scream And Fly site. If this revenue gets too low, We will eventually run the risk of not being able to maintain the site properly anymore. I would not ask this if it were not important.

If you use ad-blockers here, and want to continue to do so, by all means I have no issue with that at all. I will also not take steps to run banners that bypass ad-blockers, since I feel that readers should have the choice. I am not asking that you click on the banners if you prefer not to either. I am just asking to think about perhaps allowing S&F to simply display its ads. I always want our supporting ads here to never be a hindrance to site use.

I appreciate you all reading. I had to think long and hard about putting forth this request, and I finally did so out of necessity. Most of all, I thank you so much for the support you have given me and Scream And Fly over the many years we have been in operation.

Sincerely,
Greg

Our Google and Outside Hub Banners:

Attachment 372073

I turned off my add blocker ... Thank-you Greg ;-)

Attachment 372529 I'm taking Russian language lessons now. :-)

"Kidding, Thanx for a GREAT site"

[brocluno]

No problem

[Scream And Fly]

Hi All,
I just wanted to do two things here - first and foremost, I want to thank you all for all of the support you've given me and S&F over the 20 years we've been here. Can you believe it? Where does all the time go?

Secondly, I want to thank all of you that have read the first post on this thread and disabled any ad-blockers you might be using to allow the ads to display on the site. I really cannot stress enough how important that is to the site, especially with the ever-increasing popularity of ad-blocking add-ons for browsers. I try to make sure the ads served by Google are not invasive, offensive, or deceptive, and over the years I have contacted Google numerous times to restrict any ads I feel are inappropriate.

The S&F site is seeing traffic that it has not seen in over 10 years, and it's still increasing, especially with the coming of summer. With that comes the double-jeopardy that the site is also experiencing - the increase in ad-blocker usage has exceeded the increase in ad revenue, which this site absolutely depends on. This is not just a problem for this site - it's widespread across all publishers on the internet. I certainly don't blame people for using adblock software -many ads on some sites are not only invasive, but dangerous. The industry as a whole created this situation, not the people that create adblock software.

There is recourse, and I can set the site up where it will function only if ad-blocker software is disabled or the S&F site is whitelisted. It will hurt the site's traffic, and ultimately the entire community here. However, this is a step I will not take. I refuse to enable any features that will force users into anything, even if that means using the site.

I will not set up the site to do something like this:

I've chosen to write about this again to underscore its importance, and impact on the site, both now and in the future. However, the most important thing for me - even more important than S&F itself - is the people here I consider good friends. You've all created this site over the last two decades, and it has to ultimately be what you all want it to be.

Thank you everybody for your support for S&F, and for reading this long post.
Greg

[da sponge]

no add blocker find some adds usefull and have bought from them

[Robby321]

Thanks the reminder as I forgot. Got Adblock plus, nothing to it. Easy

Right click AB Icon. Hit manage extensions. Scroll to bottom clack options. Then over on the left Whitelist. Add S+F...

[Greg G]

Very reasonable request for a great site with a ton of information.